If you find yourself not being able to recognize your political party these days, you certainly are not alone. In the spirit of the Halloween season it seems that both democrats and republicans have put on masks that even their most hard line constituents don’t recognize.
President Barack Obama campaigned like a liberal ready to institute sweeping reforms in government but has ruled like a pragmatic dealmaker; something that has his liberal base in a proverbial tizzy as issues like health care reform and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell are not being changed the way some had hoped.
One would think that with majorities by large margins in the House and Senate as well as control of the White House that democrats would be happy, but the disenchantment from people who wholeheartedly supported Obama seems to be growing. The change they all hoped for hasn’t quite yet materialized and they aren’t in the mood for broad initiatives that are going to cost a lot of money.
In the case of Obama- yes, he can. He just hasn’t quite yet.
The problems though seem to be even bigger on the other side of the aisle. Only 20% of voters recently polled identify themselves as republicans. When your numbers dip below that dreaded to 20% mark the party may be reduced to the wife and children of Dick Cheney.
The G.O.P. seems to be headed for some massive sort of breakdown. A microcosm of that breakdown, a divide if you will, seems to be playing itself out in New York’s 23rd District where the Congressional race on the republican side has pitted Dede Scozzafava and Doug Hoffman against one another.
Scozzafava was thought to be the official G.O.P. nominee. A close examination of her voting record in the New York legislature shows her as right down the middle compared to other legislators around the country. That would make her a moderate.
Welcome to the new Republican Party, the one headed for breakdown where moderate just isn’t right enough.
Scozzafava, who supports gay rights and abortion rights pulled out of the race last week because of constant pressure and a barrage of insults on talk radio.
A candidate should be chosen by their district, because he or she meets the needs of that district. Ms. Scozzafava certainly should not have been railroaded out of running because of the wishes of a couple talking heads behind a microphone or right-wing cable news commentators.
Hoffman and the far right pulled out all of the big star luminaries for the occasion too. The former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and current Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty endorsed him.
It was clear that a moderate didn’t stand a chance. Even if she could have won New York’s 23rd Congressional district, she couldn’t overcome the idea that the Republican Party needs to go farther to the right and alienate even more voters.
If the republican’s have any hope of the comeback that party Chairman Michael Steele so often opines about, I would submit that they would do a great service by campaigning for moderate champions like Ms. Scozzafava and Senator Olympia Snow. These are people the party needs to be listening to.
They are listening to talk radio hosts and television commentators who are placing their unhealthy obsession with publicity and spotlight before a service to this country.
With more and more people being disenfranchised the independent sector of voters is growing, and those interested in partisan banter from people like Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are in the minority.
More and more people no longer recognize their political party. Both parties seem to be totally ignoring the public’s mood on big issues.
The democrats have failed to use their bully pulpit to push through health care reform that, if presented properly, most Americans are in favor of. Now we are at a standstill, with each side becoming increasingly more stubborn and ignorant; while the U.S.A remains the only industrialized nation without a government healthcare option.
The republicans have also failed to feel the pulse of the nation as they continue to promote senseless conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ordinary Americans are fed up and we can no longer stomach the meaningless casualties being seen overseas everyday.
Each party is baffling, the republicans seem to have a death wish while the democrats seems far too content not to use their majority for any of the sweeping reforms they promised on the campaign trail.
This is not the politics we go to the polls and vote for and it certainly isn’t what we expect in politicians. We need politicians who will roll up their sleeves and get to work on the promises they made us, because that’s why we vote for them.
It is time we stopped letting a few on the fringe dictate the direction of social policy in this country. Our politicians should pull their masks of and be who we elcted them to be.
It isn’t Halloween anymore.
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